Iran will not grant US-based NGO permission to open office

Tehran: Iran will not allow US-based non-governmental organisation American-Iranian Council (AIC) to open office in the country, the interior minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the United States said the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control had granted permission to New Jersey-based AIC to operate in Iran.

The decision had been "carefully reviewed" within the government, a US official said.

But Iranian Interior Minister Ali Kordan, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that his ministry would not give its approval.

"If such a request is handed over the Interior Ministry, because of the country's interest ... will not issue permission," Kordan was quoted as saying by the Kayhan daily.

The AIC seeks to "be a catalyst for positive change in the relationship between the United States and Iran," the NGO says on its web site www.american-iranian.org.

"Our mission is to help overcome many of the key misunderstandings, misperceptions and mischaracterizations that exist in this relationship," the NGO says.